St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-18
The Big Chicago Speculator Credited
With Having Smashed the Wheat
Clique Into Fragments.
An Effective Report Started by One of
His Agents That Certain Banks
We're Heavily Involved.
The Garden City Gamblers Trying
Through the Courts to Save Some
of the Wreckage.
Another Firm Goes to the Wall With An
Indebtedness Now Estimated at
about S350,00O.

onoiIo "ere lndue 10 the very close or
the big wheat deal at Chicago to con-
vince the public that P. ID. Armour was
largely interested as partner of the
clique, nobody any longer suspects
that he held any such relation to it.
There are reasons for believing, in
deed, that he was not only not a
partner, but that he was, in quiet way,
the most effective opponent that the
clique had. Some very interesting sto-
| ries were floating about Wall street yes
terday, which named him as responsible
Tor the Sens2et59nal collapse in the now
famous corper Private dispatches from
washington add strength to this theory
ana connect Mr.. Armour iii some eX-
ceedingly significant transactions with
Washington stock broker having
CONNECTION IN WALL STREET.
mouse that III many past deals has been
closely Identified with Mr.. Armour's
interests. This house, it appears, set in
motion demand for an official investi-
CATION by the treasury department of the
status of certain Western national banks
quoted as involved in the wheat corner.
Ihe controller listened to statements
tnat were quite strong enough and eX-
pllclt enough to warrant him in order
ing an investigation, and official eXam-
lnerS were hurried from Washington
TO overhaul the accounts of the Sus-
pected banks. The Fidelity National
Bank OF Cincinnati, in regard to whose
relations to the wheat corner good
deal has been said. and the Mercantile
National bank of Cleveland We're two two
banks accused. The examiners started
west, but between the time of their as
sIgnment to this particular duty and the
the time OF their arrival at their destina-
ton Gust as soon as the news of
their trip leaked OUT Chicago was
shaken by the bursting of the boom.
THE DAY AT CHICAGO.
CHICAGO, June 17.-There were no
new or sensational developments in the
affairs of the bursted wheat clique to-
day, and none are expected. Kershaw
has got no more funds, and will not get
any more. The whole affair has now
become so entangled between the Fl
deity bank, of Cincinnati, and the
American Exchange National bank
here, and there are now SO
many legal complications that what
ever funds should come here would
undoubtedly be swallowed up without
doing anybody in the trade much good.
Tie affairs of j. c. Kershaw & Co. are
so desperate that Eggleston, the special
partner, whose liability as a general
partner is claimed, is putting his prop
erty out OF his hands. The cash wheat
will not come on the market, so that the
panic OF prices is ver. Armour sent to
ALL THE BANKS
last night offering to relieve them then,
to-day, or at any moment of whatever
cash wheat they held. They all re-
turned answers that they had no wheat
for sale and did not expect to have any.
Only one small lot has been sold so far,
and that was gobbled up off the
market The cash price, 1899 for
July wheat, showed no panicky feeling.
The wheat market opened steady at
75s4c for July, a considerable advance
over the lowest price of the panic. The
feeling was, naturally enough, excited,
and tiuctuation of 1l015c was not CON
sidered worthy of an explanation.
Brokers in the pit are careful to pick
the men with whom they do business
and pay 76c, and even re, more to get
the names of the rich and strong houses.
From 73Ic July wheat went to 73c. A
member of one of the clique firms. in
a conversation with reporter. cleared
up some of the secrets of the at
tempted wheat corner. The CLIQUE
had about 100000 of his own money
here with which to margin the cash
wheat and options. There never was a
moment up to last Monday when there
was any hitch in monetary matters.
THE TROUBLE THEN AROSE,
probably from the enormous arrivals of
cash wheat. 1t had not been anticipated
that the cash wheat receipts in June
would average more than 800 cars per
day. There were 5000 cars received in
the first ten days and it was plain that
one important calculation had miscar-
ried. The cash wheat absorbed the
cliQue's money about twice as fast as
was expected. That there was some
uGeasineSS, however among the CLIQUE
brokers week ago was evidenced by
their many trips TO Cincinnati. Green
was there last Thursday, Friday and
Saturday. DeWar, Kershaw's part
of Rosenfeld u Co., was there last
Saturday and Sunday. On last Mon
day, JUNE I3, if none of the clique or
deIS were bucket Shopped, they had. be-
sides l6,000,000 bushels of cash wheat.
q, l,Gtm,000 bushels OF unsettled options.
Joe Wiltshire got here Monday and an
interview at the Richelieu hotel on that
night WAS held between kershaw,
Green, johnson, Wiltshire and Hovt.
1t is denied that there were any sensa-
tional Developments at that meeting.
but Wiltshire is described as
LITTLE NERVOUS.
He left at $50 for Cincinnati. promis-
ing that funds would be wired in the
morning. Wiltshire new claims that
there was no such pressure as Rosen
field Il Co. claim oil Tuesday morning.
on clique business, but that it came FROM
holdings by Rosenfeld u Co. of their
taller wheat. The clique money came
from Cleveland, Philadelphia, Cincin-
natl and New York. The s6Ob,OOO
brought here Wednesday consisted of
four 100000 drafts on the Fidelity
bank of Philadelphia, and letter
of credit for S200,0O0 from the Fidelity
bank of Cincinnati. The only money
ever taken out of the town by the CLIQUE
was s250,OO0 paid by Rosenfeld & Co. to
Wiltshire June 8, and before Kershaw
had sold that block of S,0O0,OOO bushels
Of June wheat. Joseph Wiltshire. the
clique representative, is a good-loolSing
man of As. He resembles AL Gage n
good deal in figure and feature. His
left eye is
like BEN BUTLER'S.
For five months he was in Libby
prison, and was once drawn to be shot.
In talk with his lawyer on Wednesday
he said that his forty-eight hours ex-
perience in Chicago, he found, was in
comparably worse than ANYTHING he
found in Libby. II. p. Wadhams has
requested all parties that have trades
with them to close them out. Robert
Lindblum this afternoon secured an at
tachment against EgglestoiI Kershaw's
backer, and will use it against the lat
ter's account in the board of trade clear
ing house. Suit was entered by Jones.